1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector terminal material used for a press-fit connector, a connector terminal, a method for producing a connector terminal, and a method for producing a substrate with a connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 6 are illustrations showing one example of a state before a terminal of a conventional press-fit connector is press-fitted to a substrate. FIG. 6A is a front view including a section along a terminal array of a front side. FIG. 6B is a side view. Void arrow marks shown in FIG. 6 show the mounting direction of each part at the time of press fitting. Conventionally, a so-called press-fit connector is widely used as a connector which can be simply connected by press-fitting a terminal to a substrate without soldering. For instance, a method of press-fitting the terminal shown in FIGS. 6 is known. In this method, the flange part 512b of each terminal 512 is pushed by the pressed surface 521 of the connector fixture 520 with a plurality of terminals 512 having flange parts extending from the housing 511 of the press-fit connector 510 interposed in comb-teeth lined in the lateral direction (the right and left direction of FIG. 6A of the connector fixture 520. An elastic part 512a swelled in a needle shape at the vicinity of the end part of each terminal 512 is press-fitted into penetrating hole 532 formed in the substrate body 531 of the printed circuit board 530 (This method is similarly adopted for a so-called pin connector which solders each terminal to the substrate (for instance, pin connectors described in JP-A-6-224597 or JP-A-10-41026). Numeral 550 shown in FIG. 6 designates a substrate fixture with which the printed circuit board 530 is brought into contact from the back thereof at the time of press-fitting, and the end of each terminal 512 is entered into a bottomed hole 552 formed in the fixture body 551, and the end of each terminal 512 is protected. The comb-teeth of the connector fixture 520 are composed by a deep groove 523, and a shallow groove 524. The deep groove 523has an inducing part 523b which induces the terminal 512 and has a slope surface, and a guide part 523a which guides the terminal 512 induced to the pressed surface 521 and has a parallel surface. The shallow groove 524 has also a similar guide part 524a, and a similar inducing part 524b. 
FIG. 7 is a view showing a state before and after bending a terminal according to a prior art, wherein 7A is a partial perspective view showing a state before bending a terminal, 7B is a partial perspective view showing a state after the bending, and 7C is a plan view of FIG. 7B. Also, FIG. 8 is a view describing conditions in bending a terminal according to a prior art, and FIG. 9 is a view describing conditions in pressure-fitting a terminal into a substrate according to a prior art.
It is common that respective terminals 512 are molded so that, after a material is punched out by a press, and a flat plate-shaped connector terminal material 512′ having a terminal width W as shown in FIG. 7A is molded, the material is inserted into a through hole 513 of a housing 511 of a connector 510 supported on a supporting base 50 as shown in FIG. 8, the material is bent in a right-angled direction at a prescribed bending radius R by pressing the tip end side thereof by a presser 570 as shown in the same drawing. At this time, as shown in FIGS. 7B and 7C, it has been known that the terminal width W′ of the above-described bent part 512c is made wider than the terminal width W of the other parts, that is, flat parts which are not bent, (that is, W′.W).
In a conventional connector fixture 520, the distance between the comb-teeth is usually widely set according to the extending terminal width W′. However, in this case, since the clearance between the body portion of the terminal 512 and the inner side surface of the guide portion 523a is increased, an accurately vertical posture of the terminal 512 cannot be maintained as shown in FIG. 9A when pressure-fitting the terminal 512 into the penetrating hole 532 of the substrate 530 , and as shown in FIG. 9B, the terminal 512 will be turned and moved centering around the portion 512c bent by the pressure-fitting part 512a of the terminal 512 between wide comb teeth. And, in the worst case, there is a problem in that it is difficult to press-fit the terminal to the penetrating hole 532 of the substrate 530 , and the yield of the product decreases.